FM: Ghost of GAAR buried, investors showing interest

About GAAR the minister told PTI in an interview: "There is universal acknowledgment we have handled it fairly effectively and buried the ghost.

He also said the concerns of the investors about the rating downgrade has been assuaged. "I think the steps we have taken assured everybody that there will not be a rating down grade. They were concerned about our ability to stay the course after we announced the decisions. They are happy we stayed the course after announcing the plan to allow FDI in multi-brand retail."

On Monday, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved the plan of Ikea to set up single brand retail stores in the country with all its facilities at par with those available abroad.

The minister also said any comparison between the economies of India and China at this stage is irrelevant as they face radically different problems — the first time an Indian minister has acknowledeged the disjunct. "They are a revenue surplus country. They have got current account surplus. They got huge foreign exchange reserves," Chidambaram told PTI.

'Disinvestment target not less than Rs 30K crore'

HONG KONG: The government is likely to fix the disinvestment target for the next fiscal at not less than Rs 30,000 crore, the target for the current fiscal, finance minister P Chidambaram said here on Tuesday.

"I have not drawn up the size of the next year's programme, but... it will not be less than this year. This year we targeted Rs 30,000 crore...," Chidambaram said. PTI

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